The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
by akamai
Summary: As the Titans prepare for Christmas, a few slight disputes almost ruin it for them. Can a certain Titan help them act like friends again? RobStar


**AN:** I wrote this back in November for a contest at the Robin and Starfire shrine. The contest ended a little while ago and I forgot to post it on so here it is!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own it!

**The Most Wonderful Time of the Year**

_It's the most wonderful time of the year..._

Or so they thought.

The five Titan teenagers sat in front of their fireplace as they watched the fire inside. A metal gate sat in the front of the fire protecting each of them from the sparks that attempted to fly out. Each one of Titans seemed to be concentrating on each little spark from each little flame even though they were really not. For moments, none of them spoke, but all of them had a look of agitation on their faces.

All of them but one.

Their alien friend, Starfire, pleaded with her friends to speak with one another. Sadly, it seemed that they were too proud to forgive one another, or even acknowledge one another. Her friends' efforts to prepare for Christmas were a disaster through several disputes between the four of them. At first the task seemed simple. The Christmas tree needed to be assembled--as it was fake--and their differences in judgment prevented them from finishing the task. Soon they all came to the conclusion that the tree was to be done later.

Raven, who was supposed bake cookies, was discovered as not being the greatest cook. Her friends had left her with the task since it seemed as something she could do. However, the Raven had forgotten the baking soda in the dessert and it was too late by the time she figured that out. Beast Boy, who was already frustrated from getting tangled in the Christmas lights, blatantly insulted Raven for the disaster. This resulted into a petty argument, which later resulted into a shouting fest.

Beast Boy had then tried to make cookies of his own, but overheated and burnt them to a crisp which caused the fire detector to go off for over half and hour. In addition to the fire alarm going off, _Cyborg_ went off, and yelled at Beast Boy for "breaking" his oven. Robin and Starfire had entered the kitchen after hearing their voices from far ways and Robin decided to take lead and calm them down. Soon his voice became meshed with the others.

As the others argued, like Robin, Starfire had tried to calm them down as well, but it didn't work. She had seen the Titans had fight many times, but this was different to Starfire. It was the holidays for crying out loud! She had learned from Robin that the holidays were fun, and it was a wonderful time. But now even he had gotten himself into the argument. So why were they fighting?

Starfire didn't want to yell at them, but if she had to, she would. She took a deep breath through her lungs and shouted, "STOP!"

Robin stopped speaking first, and Raven followed suit shortly after. Cyborg and Beast Boy continued on until Starfire put her hands gently on their shoulders.

"Friends...please do not argue. It is the 'holidays'," she glanced at Robin desperately after saying this, "Remember?"

"We remember Starfire," Raven told her. "It's going to be ok."

"You always say it's going to be ok!" Starfire cried. Robin noted to himself that her voice shook as she spoke to all of them. "But you always end up fighting over again. This time you will all stop and apologize now!"

The alien walked out of the kitchen sat down in front of the fireplace, waiting for the others to sit down. When they sat she looked tiredly at them and then looked into the fire.

Now they had sat in the same position for minutes and Starfire sighed. Robin glanced at her. He didn't like seeing her sad, especially on her very first Christmas. She looked like she wanted to cry, but wasn't going to. Robin felt like he wanted to do something, _anything_ to cheer her up. Just sitting there wasn't a good start. Robin cleared his throat and spoke. "Let's just start over, all right?"

Without hesitation Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy nodded in agreement.

Starfire looked directly at Robin and smiled lightly. _Thank you._

The Boy Wonder's stomach did a back flip and he stood up. "Raven, since the oven's overheated, instead of waiting for it to cool down you can fly to the store and buy a pack of cookies if you want to."

"It's no big deal," Cyborg told Robin. "I've got a mini sized oven in my room. She won't be able to cook as many cookies at once, but it works."

The other Titans stared at him. "A _mini-sized oven_ in your room?" Raven asked him.

"Yeah…well, I gotta heat up my midnight snacks somehow. I don't know why I got so worked up over that oven anyway." Cyborg shrugged.

"Sounds like a good idea," Robin told him.

"I'll put the lights up outside with Cy," Beast Boy piped up. "If he forgives me for breaking his special oven."

"I forgive ya BB. Just let me show Raven my oven."

Cyborg stood from the ground next and led the way to his room with Raven while Beast Boy went to untangle the lights.

Robin looked at Starfire, who still sat on the floor. She still had a small smile on her face and looked slightly flushed because of both trying to calm her friends down and sitting in front of the fire for a while. She wasn't looking at her masked friend anymore, and seemed to be in deep thought, as Robin was. Immediately the first thought that came to his mind was obviously, _'She's beautiful.' _Then, the guilty thoughts came. _'If I wanted her to be so happy, then why, oh why, did I take part in that fight? I should have tried to control the situation some more—'_

"May I put together the Christmas tree?" Starfire asked. Her eyes looked hopeful and at the angle Robin was looking her eyes were gleaming in the fire.

"Huh? I mean, yeah. Of course you can!" There was a beat and Robin asked, "Can I help you with it? I mean…there isn't that much for me to do, and I don't want you having any trouble with the tree..."

"You may help," Starfire told him while nodding. She stood up and flew over the common room with Robin closely behind. Starfire stopped to check if Robin was behind her and then kept going. When they got to the common room, they took out the plastic branches and began to color code them and then place them into a tree. Not far into their task, Robin spoke. "Look, I'm sorry for arguing with the others. I should have been firmer in—"

Starfire stopped and looked at her best friend, dumbfounded. "Robin, you were _all_ arguing. You should not take all of the blame."

"Yeah, but…I know you didn't want us fighting. I could see it in your eyes. You never want us fighting," Robin now clenched his fists, "and like you said to Raven, whenever we say it's going to be ok, we always start arguing again. I don't blame you if you're a little angry, Star."

Starfire dropped a branch she held and was quick to correct him. "I was not angry, Robin, but I was sad. You made me feel better though," she said to him softly.

They were almost done and had one more row to put on. Robin straightened up the leaves and placed the branch he held near the top. "How?" Robin asked her.

"In front of the fire, you tried to solve the problem first, Robin. You let myself and our friends "just start over". That's all that matters to me and that made me really happy."

Starfire blushed and flew up near the top of the tree to put the last branch on. She then flew gently back down and leaned over to kiss her friend lightly on the cheek. Robin's eyes widened under his mask and he turned away to hide the blush creeping up on his cheeks.

"I…I guess it _is _the most wonderful time of the year," Robin managed to get out as Starfire giggled at his expression and took his hand. "Come, let us find our friends and commence decorating the tree!"

**The End**

Thanks for reading!


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